Karma has a Sense of Humor
by ItTicklesLikeCrazy
Summary: Danny comforts Mikey, Nathan, and Lester after a group beating because of the football team, and later, proves that his words weren't just to cheer them up.


**This is a quick drabble I thought up, and typed in my email on my mobile device. I managed to wrestle the computer long enough to post it, so that's cool. I don't own Danny Phantom, and ENJOY!**

Danny pressed the makeshift ice pack to his forehead, wincing at the sharp stab of pain the pressure brought. He glanced over to Mikey, pressing a similar Ziplock baggie of ice to his ribs, frowning. Lester was holding one to his jaw and had another resting on his thigh. Nathan was rubbing cream all over his face because he was allergic to whatever bush they'd flung him into.

"You guys okay?" Danny asked, removing his ice pack and offering it to Mikey. He didn't need it. He'd gotten used to pain a long time ago. Besides, if he really wanted to keep cool, he had his ice powers for that.

Mikey accepted the ice pack with a thank you nod and a sniff. "I'm just so tired of Dash picking on us like we don't mean anything!" his voice was nasally because of the bruise on his nose. "I mean, aren't we human beings too? We're not just tools to see how many nerds that idiot can cram into one locker!"

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, itching at his face. "What would happen if I had been just a little more allergic to that bush? What would happen if I had died? Would they even care that they had killed somebody past fearing their own punishment? And their stupid rich parents would probably get all charges dropped anyway. It's not fair!"

Lester nodded and continued, "You know, I would press charges if I didn't think that they would hire a lawyer so good that they could get my family fines for being in the way or something. And Lancer doesn't even care because they're _so_ good at football, and therefore are exempt from punishment. None of the teachers do. I guess some people just get dealt a good hand. Muscles, looks, money… and what do we have but our broken pride?"

"Poetic," Danny noted, rubbing a hand over his bruised temple. "But untrue." They all looked at him, and he continued. "I mean," he smirked at them. "Who's got the brains?" He gestured at them, nodding.

Lester sniffed. "Brains don't matter in high school. They only drag you down further. It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you've got a set of muscles and a fancy car."

Danny held up a finger. "But _after_ high school. Being good at football only works for one in a couple thousand people. Brains work for everybody, as long as they have ambition and strength."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever Danny. I think Dash might have hit you a little too hard." He paused, looking a little guilty, and the guilty expression was adopted onto both of the others' faces as well. They all knew that if Danny hadn't stepped in, they'd be much more injured, but Danny would be fine. Instead, Danny had taken the brunt of the beating, and here they were complaining.

Danny shrugged with nonchalance. "Hmm. But when Dash is working in a tiny cubicle for your tech company, I'm coming in for a picture."

They all laughed, easing up some of the tension. Mikey rubbed his ribs, because it probably hurt laughing.

"Seriously though," Danny continued. "You've all got real potential and good chances. What are the odds that Dash makes his dream of becoming pro football? One in seven thousand? Eight?"

They all smiled ruefully. Mikey patted him on the back. "Thanks for the pep talk, Danny. Hey, maybe you'll make it to space and get to rub it in their faces."

Danny laughed, a little bitterly. "Not likely. Have you seen my grades? But when I'm working for one of your software companies, remember this. Maybe I'll get a raise." Nobody laughed, but it wasn't really that funny. Danny clapped Mikey on the back, harder than he intended to. "Remember this too: Karma has a sense of humor."

They looked at him, confused. "What?"

Danny tilted his head from side to side and shrugged. "I said, karma has a sense of humor. It means that…Okay, imagine that Dash secretly wants to become a ballerina dancer." All three laughed, and Danny grinned. "So, Dash has this secret passion of being a ballerina dancer since he was three, and all throughout high school, while he bullies us. And later in life, he turns out to wash cars for a living," more snickers from the other three boys, "and he saves up enough money to go see a huge showcase of the nutcracker, because he still loves ballet, even if he didn't fulfill his dream. So, karma, being a completely real and functional force, has a couple of options here. It could make one of us," he gestured at the four of them, "the director of the showcase, or…" Danny paused for dramatic effect. "One of us could star in the role that Dash so desperately wanted."

The three other boys all adopted incredulous expression. Danny broke the silence by saying, "You know, not to brag, but it would probably be me." He pretended to flip his hair in a vain way and preen. "I'm the daintiest on my feet." He demonstrated a ridiculous movement, and the other boys laughed again.

"But…" Danny shrugged at them. "It couple happen in real life. I mean, one of us could actually turn out of be excellent at football, and beat him to the pro leagues." They snorted in disbelief, but Danny shrugged it off. "Or, you know, what's the one thing Dash holds in higher regard than football?"

The bell rang, shrill and high, and Danny tried not to wince at the unexpected sound. "Well, that means lunch is over." Danny fake-saluted them. "Later."

As he was strolling off, a yell came from behind him. "But the only thing Dash holds in higher regard than football is Danny Phantom."

Danny turned back and winked at the three boys, standing there, confused. "Exactly," he said, smirking, which only saw fit to bewilder them further. Without another word of explanation, Danny turned and strolled down the hall towards his fifth period. He wouldn't make it there on time, because his ghost sense went off as soon as he turned the first corner, but that's life.

* * *

Danny landed on the frozen arctic tundra, exhausted, and yet, overwhelmed by giddiness. He was torn between dropping right then and there and passing out, or jumping for joy, and maybe kissing Sam again. Decisions, decisions.

Sam tackled him, shortly followed by Jazz, and then Tucker. Danny fell to the ground underneath their weight, and they all shared an affectionate dog pile before pulling apart.

"Awesome," Sam, now apparently his girlfriend (!), told him, beaming.

Jazz patted him on the back. "Nice job, little brother. Or should I say, _hero._" She and Danny shared a smile.

Skulker was standing over them, and Danny figured he had a price to pay, or at least credit to give. He stood to face the metallic ghost, and all the ghosts behind him. "I don't know what to say, other than thanks, Skulker. To all of you."

Skulker grabbed the front of his suit and roughly pulled him in, until they were face to face. Danny found he liked being in the position much more with Sam than with Skulker. "Don't get too mushy on us, ghost child. Remember, I'll never stop hunting you." Skulker grinned a grin that was all teeth. "And now that you've saved your world, you're a much more valuable prize."

He pulled back and grinned an actual grin at Danny before pushing of the ground, followed by the other ghosts. They all circled up, and flew into the portal. The last one just got through before it popped out of existence.

His parents came up. "Nice job Danny," the congratulated, though their tones seemed a bit hostile. "Or should we say," his dad put and arm around his mom and their expressions turned to smiles, "_Danny_," they said, in a much more friendly, almost parental way.

"What?" Danny tried to feign ignorance, glancing around. "Uhh…Sorry, citizens, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

His mom pushed his arm, which was wagging a finger, down, and laced her gloved fingers through his. "Isn't there something you want to tell us?"

Danny paused, having no idea how to respond to that, because honestly, they probably knew, but if they didn't, he didn't want to give it away.

"It's okay Danny," Jazz said from behind him. She took a few steps closer and Danny turned to face her. "They know."

Danny gave his parents another look, just to make sure they weren't busting out the ectoguns. They just smiled and stepped back into each other's embrace. Danny glanced around at all the smiling faces of the people around him. Determination solidified in the pit of his stomach, and he clenched his fists, the familiar ring of light forming around his waist. Slowly, it worked its way up and down his body, and when it was done, it was Danny Fenton, not Danny Phantom, standing there in a confidant pose.

Valerie had a stunned, look on her face. Danny glanced around again. Most people looked surprised, but open mouths were slowly morphing into smiling ones, white teeth shining from the light reflected off the snow. Suddenly, cheers and applause rang out from the people all around him. Various cameras flashed, and the applause only got louder. Valerie and her dad were both clapping as well.

Danny felt a tug on the corners of his lips, and he smiled at the surrounding people as they converged into a circle around him. More cameras flashed, and Danny looked over to see a reporter from Amity Park frantically scribbling something down. That gave him an idea…

* * *

Two weeks passed before the world rebooted enough to get functioning as normal again. They'd started school six days previous, and the internet had started up three days ago. The newspapers were back to printing, and Danny was mailed a copy one day before they were sent out, as per his request. As soon as he saw the front page, knew his opportunity was upon him. Proving at least one thing he'd ever said correct was on his bucket list, after all.

Danny rolled up the newspaper and shoved it in his backpack before rushing to school. He ran into Valerie on the fly over, but instead of attacking him, she greeted him with a constant stream of apologies and a rambling story about Vlad and Danielle or something. Danny held up a hand to stop her, hugged her mid-air, and then shouted, "Race you to school!" before taking off like a rocket. He heard Val's disbelieving laugh a second before the whir of her hoverboard started up.

Danny landed in the janitor's closet and changed back, probably the last time he would need to change in there. He slipped out and saw Val de-suiting as she strolled down the hallway. She escorted him to his locker while they talked like old friends, which they were.

Danny shoved most of his stuff into his locker, except what he needed for first period, a can of carbonated water, and the newspaper. When Val saw the front page, her brow furrowed. "What are you up to?" she wondered, and Danny simply responded with a grin. The front page bore a side-by-side picture of Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom , proclaiming in bold letters **Danny Phantom's Secret Human Identity, Ghost Hunters' Son Daniel Fenton! **The article went on to explain some halfa science and a few abridged versions of Danny's adventures, all making him sound really heroic and strong.

"Karma," Danny replied simply, after a beat. "Of you want to watch, follow me!" He ran off down the hallway, and after Valerie let off a truly impressive exasperated sigh, she followed.

Danny found Lester, Nathan, and Mikey easily, and skidded to a stop in front of them. Nathan tried to stare as Valerie came up after him, but failed. Danny caught his attention by clapping his palms loudly together.

"You guys remember our little bonding chat about Dash as a ballerina and how you guys didn't get karma's sense of humor?" he asked, a little excitedly. They all nodded uncertainly after a quick moment. "Good," Danny said, handing his stuff for first period to Valerie. "I'm about to show you how funny karma can be. Follow me, fellow revenge seekers, as Dash and the other members of the A-List face karma's folly."

They did, and after a couple minutes of searching, and Sam and Tucker joining them, they found the A-List clustered together, talking before their morning classes. Danny shook the can of carbonated water violently for about a minute before popping the tab and throwing in right into the center of their gathering, where it spun and sprayed each member of the A-List with fizzy water. Everybody in their group except for Danny had their mouth drop open in shock, which danny chuckled quetly at the expressions on the A-List's member's faces.

Dash turned around, red-faced, and saw Danny standing there, arm outstretched. "FENTON!" he roared, and started towards him, probably expecting Danny to run. When he stood his ground, Dash picked him up by his shirt and brought his fist back. Before the fist could even come close to hitting Danny, Danny shoved dash's chest back so he released his grip on the smaller boy. Dash lost his balance and Danny ducked to the side so Dash fell forward, dragged by the momentum of his sloppy punch, and face planted into the linoleum.

Everybody in the hallway turned to stare, while Nathan, Mikey, and Lester shrunk back. "Are you crazy?" Mikey hissed, finding his voice after all the shock.

Danny turned and smirked at him. "I've dodged far better punches than that pathetic attempt." Their mouth's dropped open so far it looked like they were _trying_ to catch flies. Dash scrambled to his feet and turned to face Danny, bringing his fist back again. This time, Danny didn't even try to dodge, just let Dash's punch hit his gut.

Everybody in the hallway expected Danny to fall down and gasp for breath, but he hardly even flinched. Part of this was because he didn't need to breath, part of it was because he'd gotten up after punches five times that hard, but nobody needed to know that…yet.

"Hmm," Danny hummed, tilting his head to the side and peering up at Dash, who now noticed he was only an inch or two taller than Danny. "The beginning of sophomore year wasn't exactly when I thought karma would kick in, but you take what you can get." Danny made to hand the rolled up newspaper to Dash, but dash smacked it away, looking at it with contempt.

"What is that?" he sneered as Danny shrugged and flicked it open.

"It's a newspaper," Danny said in a flat voice. "It's karma's sense of humor." He turned and tossed the paper to Mikey before grabbing his stuff from Valerie and beginning to walk down the hall with Sam, Tucker, and Val. He smirked as he heard Mikey's gasp from behind them as he read the headline.

"What's the one thing Dash likes more than football," Danny yelled back at them as Nathan and Lester peered over Mikey's shoulders and began to read the article. He barely heard Mikey's breathy "Danny Phantom" as he turned the corner with his friends, making for his first period.

A few seconds later, though, he clearly heard Dash's exclamation of "NO WAY!" echo through the halls, and more and more people clamor for the newspaper. Danny smirked at his friends, laughing a little. He was finally getting karma's jokes.

**That's it, but I thought it was pretty nice. Don't try the carbonated water trick! It only works like one out of eleven times, but Danny's a badass, so I figured he could pull in off. So, UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


End file.
